1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for treating endotoxic shock by administering to a living subject an effective amount of putrescine and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Endotoxin is a lipopolysaccharide molecule which is contained in the cell wall of all gram-negative bacteria. When a patient is infected with the bacteria, which is accompanied by hypotension and signs of poor tissue perfusion, it is called endotoxic shock. Many severely-ill patients die of endotoxic shock.
One of the most difficult problems in treating endotoxic shock lies in the fact that the mechanism causing endotoxic shock has not been fully understood, or may have been incorrectly stated.
The inventor of the present invention has found that arginase and L-arginine have a protective effect against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced endotoxic shock in mice, which is disclosed in Taiwanese Patent Application No. 81110533 (now pending), U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/044,233 (now allowed), and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/443,538 (now pending).
Since arginase can degrade L-arginine to L-ornithine and urea, L-ornithine can be converted to putrescine, which can be further converted to two polyamines: spermidine and spermine. The inventor thus has also tested the protective effect of L-ornithine and spermidine on endotoxic shock. The results show that L-ornithine and spermidine also protect against endotoxic shock, as disclosed in the above-mentioned patent applications.
Among the above described series materials, putrescine and spermine have not been tested for the protective effect against endotoxic shock. The inventor has further found that spermine shows no protective effect, while putrescine exhibits a protective effect against endotoxic shock.